The securities services business drove strong results for SIX during the first six months of 2017, recording an operating income of CHF 189.1 million (€165.65 million).
Although this is a 4.7 percent dip compared to the same time last year, it represents a 9.6 percent on the once 2016’s figures were adjusted to take ‘special effects’ such as property sales into account.
SIX put this growth down to improvements in the international securities custody business, which saw higher deposit volumes and higher-interest income in the first half of 2017.
The Swiss exchange business recorded an operating income of CHF 101 million (€88.47 million), an increase of 5.7 percent compared to the same time last year, partially attributed to volatility in the global markets.
In its financial information business, SIX saw a 2.7 percent dip in operating income, recording CHF 196 million (€171.69 million) in the first half of the year. This result was put down to general effects of currency fluctuation, and reallocation of client portfolios.
The payment services business reported operating income of CHF 452.8 million (€396.64 million). This represents a 6.68 percent increase compared to the first half of 2016, which SIX suggested was due to higher transaction volumes.
SIX attributed the generally strong results to “consistent focus on the core business and the development of new central infrastructure services for the Swiss financial centre overall”, and to its “broadly diversified business model and strict cost discipline in implementing this strategy”.
During the first half of the year, the SIX securities services business launched Advanced Settlement, a new central banking service intended to improve efficiency and reduce risk throughout the entire securities settlement process.
It also implemented its Regulatory Hub, a platform allowing bi-directional exchange of regulatory information in a bid to help market participants to comply with new EU requirements.
During the same time period, SIX Swiss Exchange gained three new issuers through the IPOs of Idorsia, Rapid Nutrition and Galenica Santé, while SIX’s CO:RE trading platform gained recognition as a multilateral trading system from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.
